Posted by Dick Hosmer on Saturday, 29 October 2011, at 10:32 a.m., in response to Re: 1873 Springfield Carbine, posted by Dick Hosmer on Saturday, 29 October 2011, at 2:48 a.m.

I see that my post might be confusing to a novice. 12221 and 43617 represent the presently known spread of 7th Cav issues; neither of them have been forensically ID'd. The most "interesting" ranges (so far) seem to be: 16xxx, 17xxx, 21xxx, 33xxx, 34xxx. A reasonable absolute maximum upper limit would be 50,000.

One also needs to recall that 30,000 rifles were made during the same period, and that "Custer" carbines have been widely faked over the years. Fortunately, today's collectors are much better informed, and much more sophisticated as to what sort of "Uncle Charlie" story they would accept, than when I started in 1970.